Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Séverine, Potinated

One of the very few women (other than female royals) in the Felix Potin photo-card series from around 1900. The series is devoted mainly to French 'great men' (scientists, writers, generals, politicians) of the late 19th century. The cards themselves are the size of cigarette cards, but I can't recall at the moment if they were indeed packaged with cigarettes. Felix Potin was a fantastically successful French department store magnate of the 19th c. The cards--over 400 in the series-- were a promotional gambit.

And la belle Séverine? (Real name:Caroline Rémy de Guebhard.) *Not* to be confused with the winner of the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest. Rather: one of the great French feminists--journalist, anarchist, Dreyfusard (e?), supporter of Russian Revolution, etc. etc. A snappy dresser too, in a certain dykey-Belle Epoque mode.